Ceballos' hat trick helps Craig top Parker

JANESVILLE--The Janesville Craig Cougars sent their seniors out in style on Tuesday.

Sophomore Hozai Ceballos notched a hat trick, seniors David Dyble and Dan Swales each scored goals and the Cougars ended their regular season with a 5-0 victory over crosstown rival Janesville Parker.

It was Craig’s third straight victory and its first in the Big Eight Conference. The Vikings fell to 0-8 in league play.

“I’m really happy that in our last few games we managed to pull out wins,” Dyble said. “We had a good start to the season, and I definitely think we came together as a team these last few games.”

Dyble put the Cougars (8-9 overall) on the board in the 16th minute.

Junior Ian Reinicke made a run up the right side of the field and sent a cross to the far post. Dyble flashed toward the post and put his left foot to the ball, glancing it off Parker keeper Francisco Lara and into the goal.

“It’s my job to track with him,” Dyble said. “So when that cross came in, I knew I had to get to it. But I didn’t have a lot of room at all.”

Ceballos, the Cougars’ leading goal-scorer, continued his late-season barrage by scoring twice later in the first half.

He fought through traffic to make it 2-0 in the 26th minute, then scored off a clever corner kick from Yoshi Fukushima just before halftime.

“This was a very nice way to end the regular season,” Craig coach Mike Hook said. “I think the seniors did themselves justice, and did the level of talent we have justice. They showed how much they’ve worked lately. They’ve changed the way they played and adopted a new system, and they were able to put it on display tonight.”

Swales scored his goal in the opening minutes of the second half, and Ceballos finished off a hat trick in the 57th minute.

Austyn Meier and David Diaz combined to make three saves to preserve the clean sheet for Craig. Lara stopped seven shots for the Vikings.

“Having six starters out obviously put us in a thin position, so we only came with three subs,” Vikings coach Jason Bier said. “But overall, we did some good things. The kids gave a great effort.

“They played well and played hard.”

Both Janesville programs face an uphill battle when the playoffs start on Tuesday.

Parker, which will close out its regular season tonight with a makeup game against Madison West, then plays at Madison Memorial to open the Division 1 playoffs.

Craig plays on the road at Middleton to open the tournament.

“I think we tell them what we always tell them, and that’s that we carry the reputation of the program on our shoulders,” Hook said. “Win or lose, we want to come out proud of what we put in.”